From: Gregory Brown
To: undisclosed-recipients:;
Bcc: jeevacation@gmail.com
Subject: Fwd: Greg Brown's Weekend Reading and Other Things.... 07/14/2013
Date: Sun, 14 Jul 2013 15:51:49 +0000
Attachments: United States of decay MAILOnline July 3, 2013.pdf;
Politics,
ne_20,_2013.pdf;
Austerity_Won't_Work_ifthe_Roof_ls_Leaking_Robert_Frank_NYT_July_6,2013.pdf;
Global_threat_to_food_supply_as_water_wells_dry_up,wams_top_environment_expert_Le
ster_Brown The_Guardian July_6,2013.pdf;
Drowning_slowly,_How_the_America's Golden State cities_will look in_500years_if se
a_levels_rise_as_predictediames_Daniel_MailOnline_July_6„2013.pdf;
When the Best Hospitals Are the Worst-
.pdf;
Good_to know—HEALTH informationJuly_14„2013.pdf; The_FOUR TOPS_bio_7-14-
2013.pdf
George_Zimmerman_Not_Guilty_Jermaine_Spradle_Huff Post_July_13,2013.pdf
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DEAR FRIEND
After deliberating for more than 16 hours, a jury of six women on Saturday evening found George
Zimmerman not guilty in the shooting death of Trayvon Martin, an unarmed 17-year-old in Sanford,
Fla. Zimmerman had pleaded not guilty to charges of second-degree murder with an affirmative
defense, claiming he had shot Martin to save his own life after being attacked by the teen on Feb. 26,
2012. The trial, televised nationally on cable networks and streamed live across the Internet on various
sites, kept the country captivated awaiting a verdict on the tragic events that took place that rainy
night. Following four weeks of testimony, more than a dozen witnesses and a host of controversy,
Zimmerman walked out of court a free man. The verdict is a travesty of justice. Because where I
come from; if you stalk someone who is walking alone on a rainy night, get out of the safety of your car
after being told by a police dispatcher to not, confront them and a fight erupts, the fact that you
introduced a gun into the altercation killing some one is manslaughter if not 2nd degree murder.
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As Judith Browne Dianis wrote: "It is distressing that George Zimmerman was found not guilty
in the tragic killing of Trayvon Martin, an unarmed black teenager who was gunned down last year by a
man who saw him as a threat, not because he posed a threat, but because of the color of his skin. We
call on the Department of Justice to act on the violation of Trayvon Martin's civil rights. There is no
more fundamental right than the right to live.
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Trayvon Martin is America's son. He represents the precariousness of life as a young black man in
America. Although the overall murder rate is dropping in the U.S., homicides of young black men are
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at 28 per 100,000, the highest rate amongst all young people. More than half the nation's homicide
victims are African American, even though they make up only 13 percent of the population, and of
those black murder victims, 85 percent are men, most of them young.
Black men are routinely racially profiled whether by a neighborhood watch captain like George
Zimmerman, or the stop-and-frisk policy of the New York City Police, in which a staggering 86 percent
of those stopped during the Bloomberg administration were black or Latino; 88 percent of which
ended up being innocent. All across the country, young black men continue to be the victims of police
killings by officers who are then rarely held accountable for their actions:
In March of this year, 16-year-old unarmed Kimani Gray was shot seven times, including three times
in his back by New York City police as he left his friend's birthday party. An unarmed 19-year-old
college student, Kendrec McDade, was shot and killed by officers in March 2012 in Pasadena,
California. In Las Vegas, 28-year-old Orlando Barlow was surrendering on his knees when officers
fatally shot him in 2003. And four years ago, 22-year-old Oscar Grant was killed by Oakland transit
police, who said they accidentally used a gun instead of a Taser. All of these young men were unarmed
and in almost all of the cases the officers were exonerated and returned to the beat. In the case of
Grant, despite video showing the young man being shot as he was handcuffed and lying face down on
the platform, the officer was convicted of manslaughter and served less than one year. Sadly, the saga
of police killings and beatings of unarmed black youth is as story that forms a part of the fabric of the
everyday life of most American black men.
Young men of color are also victimized by schools' zero-tolerance policies that result in the arrest,
suspension, and expulsion of students for minor infractions. Black and Latino students represent more
than 70 percent of those involved in school-related arrests or referrals to law enforcement for violating
minor school rules like the dress code, carrying a cell phone, or talking back to a teacher.
The statistics paint a portrait of racial inequity. African Americans make up two-fifths and Hispanics
one-fifth of all confined youth today. Black men represent 7.9 percent of 18- to 24-year-olds in
America, but only 2.8 percent of undergraduates at public flagship universities. The jobless rate among
poor black teen drop outs is an alarming 95 percent, according to Northeastern University.
The disparities, unfortunately, do not end there. According to Human Rights Watch, people of color
are no more likely to use or sell illegal drugs than whites, but they have higher rate of arrests. African
Americans comprise 14 percent of regular drug users but are 37 percent of those arrested for drug
offenses. From 1980 to 2007, about one in three of the 25.4 million adults arrested for drugs was
African American.
Upon conviction, black offenders often receive longer sentences compared to white offenders. The U.S.
Sentencing Commission stated that in the federal system black offenders receive sentences that are 10
percent longer than white offenders for the same crimes. The Sentencing Project reports that African
Americans are 21 percent more likely to receive mandatory-minimum sentences than white defendants
and are 20 percent more like to be sentenced to prison.
The killing of Trayvon Martin is a clarion call for our nation to finally grapple with the issue of racial
injustice and the continued victimization of young black men. The response of millions to the injustice
of failing to arrest and try Trayvon's killer is a testament to the power and effectiveness of grassroots
movements. The movement must not stop with this verdict but continue on until each and every young
man of color in America can walk the streets in any of our nation's neighborhoods unafraid, knowing
not only that he is safe, but that his country walks beside him."
When I was growing up in the 195os and 196os in New York, street gangs would call each other to
rumble (fight), but there would be rules, fist only, baseball bats and chains or totally lethal (knives and
guns). And if the rumble started with fist-only, should your opponents get the better of the rumble,
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your guys accepted the beat-down. AGAIN: On a rainy night a seventeen year-old was followed by a
older man who after being told by police to stop, proceeded stalking his prey, getting out of the safety
of his car, confronting the teenager which erupted into a fight and (to be generous), instead of
accepting a beat-down he introduced a gun shooting his unarmed adversary and killing him. Where I
come from that is called at manslaughter if not 2nd degree murder. We have all seen Westside Story,
the kid who kills the other kid with a knife in the rumble, goes to jail.
I would normally call the not-guilty decision by the Zimmerman jury blatant racism, except that in
2011 another Florida jury gave the similar verdict in the Casey Anthony trial — who while partying
with friends covered up the death of her two year-old daughter Caylee, for more than a month. And
only after Caylee's grandparents called the police, Casey told detectives several falsehoods, including
that the child had been kidnapped by a nanny on June 9, and that she had been trying to find her, too
frightened to alert the authorities. The not guilty murder verdict was greeted with public outrage.
Some complained that the jury misunderstood the meaning of reasonable doubt, while others said the
prosecution relied too heavily on the defendant's allegedly poor moral character because they had been
unable to show conclusively how the victim had died. Both verdicts are travesties of justice, with
the exception that if Trayvon Martin had shot George Zimmerman for stalking him, getting out of his
car and starting a fight, I am not sure that his jury would have judged him not guilty. And as Tracy
Martin (Trayvon'sfather) tweeted, "thanks to everyone who are with us and who will be with us so
we together can make sure that this doesn't happen again."
Last week I ran across an article on ItIAILOnline - The United States of decay: Forgotten
ruins of once booming towns that litter landscape in some ofAmerica's most populated areas. A new
collection of photographs showcases some of the abandoned buildings and decaying infrastructure that
can be found throughout New York and other northeastern states. Photographers Daniel Barter and
Daniel Marbaix visited dozen of locations on their journey which took in New York City and the
infamous Rust Belt, once home to America's heavy industry. They visited dozens of now derelict
spaces including the Seaview Tuberculosis Sanatorium on Staten Island, The Steubenville Steel works
in Ohio, plus the Rockland Psychiatric Hospital and Buffalo Central Terminal in New York state. They
found countless examples of decaying infrastructure including abandoned power plants, hospitals,
asylums, schools, theaters, steel mills, prisons, factories, hotels, cathedrals, blast furnaces, and
convents to a boat graveyard.
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The stunning collection of photographs has been gathered in a book entitled `States of Decay: New
York & Americas Forgotten North East.' The photographers say their aim was to give people a
glimpse of the broken and doomed spaces which have been left behind in some of the county's largest
urban areas almost as monuments to a different era that is now gone. The book is now available on
buy on Amazon in the U.S. and U.K.
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We have to ask ourselves why do we allow so much infrastructure go to waste. You don't see this in
other industrialized countries. But all across the Northeast and Midwest we see entire cities, towns
and neighborhoods in advance decay. Physical decay is the sibling to spiritual decay and moral decay
which ends up with economic decay. And with the current growing inequality in wealth, power and
influence, if not changed we will see much more of this type of decay. I have lived in wonderful homes
in Europe that were 300, 400 and 500 years old. I have worked and shopped in wonderful
neighborhoods that were centuries old in the time of Napoleon, Henry VIII and Christopher
Columbus.
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I remember asking Mayor Tom Bradley who was beaming about the revitalization of downtown Los
Angeles, "why did he allow developers to build 5o story islands that you had to get into a car if you
wanted to go to the next building which was in the next block. Had anyone seen Paris? Walked the
Champs of Elysess? Driven around the Trocadero? Or relaxed in the Luxembourg Gardens?" But
then our easiness to discard our elderly, poor, children and disadvantage is symptomatic of the
physical decay that these pictures show. Until we value our past we will never fully appreciate what
we have — hence our easiness to let so much of America go into decay with such ease.
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Please see the attached article and pictures as well as the enclosed video.
Website: http:ilwww.dailymail.co.uk/news/artic le-2354175/Uni ted-States-decay-Images-forgotten-America-
ruins-20th-century-left-abandoned-New-York-north-eastem-states.html
Please see the video on website above to see more.
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Good to know HEALTH information
HEART ATTACKS AND WATER !
• How many folks do you know who say they don't want to drink anything before going to bed
because they'll have to get up during the night.
• Heart Attack and Water - I never knew all of this ! Interesting
Something else I didn't know ... I asked my Doctor why people need to urinate so much at night time.
Answer from my Cardiac Doctor - Gravity holds water in the lower part of your body when you are
upright (legs swell). When you lie down and the lower body (legs and etc) seeks level with the kidneys,
it is then that the kidneys remove the water because it is easier. This then ties in with the last
statement!
I knew you need your minimum water to help flush the toxins out of your body, but this was news to
me. Correct time to drink water...
Very Important. From A Cardiac Specialist!
Drinking water at a certain time maximizes its effectiveness on the body
• 2 glasses of water after waking up - helps activate internal organs
• 1 glass of water 3o minutes before a meal - helps digestion
• 1 glass of water before taking a bath - helps lower blood pressure
• 1 glass of water before going to bed - avoids stroke or heart attack
I can also add to this... My Physician told me that water at bed time will also help prevent night time
leg cramps. Your leg muscles are seeking hydration when they cramp and wake you up with a Charlie
Horse.
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Mayo Clinic Aspirin Dr. Virend Somers, is a Cardiologist from the Mayo Clinic, who is lead author of
the report in the July 29, 2008 issue of the Journal of the American College of Cardiology.
Most heart attacks occur in the day, generally between 6 M. and noon. Having one during the night,
when the heart should be most at rest, means that something unusual happened. Somers and his
colleagues have been working for a decade to show that sleep apnea is to blame.
1. If you take an aspirin or a baby aspirin once a day, take it at night.
The reason: Aspirin has a 24-hour "half-life"; therefore, if most heart attacks happen in the wee hours
of the morning, the Aspirin would be strongest in your system.
2. FYI, Aspirin lasts a really long time in your medicine chest, for years, (when it gets old, it smells like
vinegar).
Please read on...
Something that we can do to help ourselves - nice to know. Bayer is making crystal aspirin to dissolve
instantly on the tongue.
They work much faster than the tablets.
Why keep Aspirin by your bedside? It's about Heart Attacks.
There are other symptoms of a heart attack, besides the pain on the left arm. One must also be aware
of an intense pain on the chin, as well as nausea and lots of sweating; however, these symptoms may
also occur less frequently.
Note: There may be NO pain in the chest during a heart attack.
The majority of people (about 6o%) who had a heart attack during their sleep did not wake up.
However, if it occurs, the chest pain may wake you up from your deep sleep.
If that happens, immediately dissolve two aspirins in your mouth and swallow them with a bit of water.
Afterwards: - Call 911. - Phone a neighbor or a family member who lives very close by.- Say "heart
attack!" - Say that you have taken 2 Aspirins.
Take a seat on a chair or sofa near the front door, and wait for their arrival and ...DO NOT LIE DOWN!
A Cardiologist has stated that if each person after receiving this e-mail, sends it to to people, probably
one life could be saved!
I have already shared this information. What about you?
Do forward this message. It may save lives!
"Life is a one-time gift"
*****
In The Atlantic this week Derek Thompson wrote — Disney Is Not a Movie Company; It's a
Television Company - to explain why Disney's latest movie, 'The Lone Ranger" which cost
$225 million and did not live up to box-office expectations, having only made a disappointing $49
million over the extended 4th of July holiday weekend opening is not a problem for the parent
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company. As a result, analysts are projecting that the Walt Disney Company will have to write-down
$190 million. And although it is bad for Disney it is not that bad because in reality Disney is no
longer just a movie company. In reality, it is a television company with a number of other
interconnecting assets. Yes, it still makes movies, but now less than a dozen films a year. In fact, a
blockbuster film is only icing on the cake for the parent's company's financials. Because it owns
amusement parks all over the world. Cruise ships. A lucrative merchandising business. So if you look
at Disney's financials, the majority of its earnings don't come from its film studio. They come from its
TV holdings: cable networks, particularly ESPN and the Disney Channel, and ABC.
Take a look. (Broadcasting, here, refers to its ABC ownership.)
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Financial reports aren't perfectly precise snapshots of a company's identity. Movie accounting is
totally wacky and the studio division might not reflect its true significance to the parent company.
Without its movies, you might say, Disney wouldn't have much of a merchandise business. Without its
movies, it wouldn't have much of an amusement park business. It wouldn't have characters and plots
of spin off and license on TV. And so on. All of that's true. But at its core, the Disney company draws
its largest and most dependable source of income from subscriptions fees that power its cable
networks ... even though casual newspaper readers could be forgiven for thinking the company lives
and dies by the opening weekend of its summer blockbusters.
And that's the brilliant thing about Disney. The movie business is a rotten thing. American audiences
don't go the movies every week, so they have to be lured with egregiously expensive marketing
campaigns for a handful of "tentpole" movies that, if they blow up, can destroy quarterly earnings for
the film division and take down careers. The TV business is somewhat the opposite. The subscription
fee model (wherein a sliver of your cable bill goes straight to the networks' pockets) guarantees that
cable networks get paid with or without a "hit." Think of it this way. "The Lone Ranger," the movie,
only earns money from people who choose to sit at watch it in a theater. And as Thompson points out,
"That's a high bar." But if "The Lone Ranger" were on TV, its network would earn money from all
pay-TV households, whether they watched "The Lone Ranger" or not. That's the dirty secret and the
dark genius of the cable TV business. And that's why it's the business Disney is in. So for all of you
who own Disney stock don't panic, as one or two failed Disney movies won't really hurt the company's
bottom line.
On July 8, Bill Moyers sat with Charlie Rose to talk about Bill's Frontline project "Two
American Families." They talk about the many challenges facing America's shrinking middle class
and how our economy is biased toward the very rich and the disappearing American dream. Two
American Families follows two families over twenty-one years starting in 1991 (the Stanleys and
the Neumanns two middle-classfamilies) in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, hard workers, caring parents and
faithful church goers seeking to secure a foothold in the American middle-class, as their security comes
unglued and they stubbornly fall into poverty. The big ugly is that these two families are not the
exceptions, as they are part of a overwhelming growing number of families where their primary
breadwinner lose their manufacturing job (asfactories closed throughout the Midwest and
Northeast), struggled to keep out of poverty, and are now often working two to three jobs that pay
minimum wage with no benefits. While the jobs they lose were paying $19, $20, $21 an hour and now
they can only get part-time jobs paying $6 or $7 dollars an hour with no benefits and often on the
graveyard shift (npm to 7am or midnight to 8am). The film puts a face on the growing number of
working poor who are spiraling down into poverty.
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charlierose2
See the Charlie Rose interview with Bill Moyers:
Two American Families.: "I think the hardest time is when you have to worry about coming
home,"says Keith Stanley, "And there's always a bill on the door saying the water's cut off, or the guy
just called saying he's gonna cut off the phone, or the electricity's off, and you have to waitfor a
couple of days until mom and dad can get enough money to put it back on." Keith is just 14 years old
here, long and lanky and wearing a bright green t-shirt, and as hefinishes speaking, the camera
pans left, to his mom, Jackie. She listens carefully, then turns to walk away. The scene cuts here, to a
look at the block in Sherman Park where the Stanleys live—a long shot of neat single-story homes,
with lawns and hedges and driveways.
Keith & Jackie Stanley and Terry & Tony Neumann
After watching their American Dream slowly wither away they continued to accept responsibility.
They did what they were told. They did retraining. Took two jobs. Less prestigious jobs. Part-time
jobs. Graveyard shifts and weekends. Often at the expense of the deterioration of their families, as
they were unable to tend to the needs of their children and spouses Bill Moyers believes that
although the 199os was a prosperous time and the economy grew the percentage of the nation income
was on a downward slide. These are families who believed in America and the American Dream. That
if you worked hard and try and played by the rules, you could take care of your family and your kids
would inherit a better life with more opportunities because of your sacrifice. There are now twenty-
one million families in America whose primary bread-winner is working one of more part-time jobs
because they can't find full-time permanent employment. What happened?
Conventional experts will tell you that their problems were caused by globalization, mobility of
financial capital, technology. But Moyers believes that it is due to engineered inequality, as businesses
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have aggressively campaigned to drive wages down along with a series of political decisions over the
last thirty years and business deciding to cut labor costs by eliminating collective bargaining and
unions, in addition to favorable taxes that allowed owners of capital and business to move their money
abroad chasing cheaper and cheaper labor, which has now created a growing underclass of working
poor of formally middle class people with no future, benefiting of the rich at the top. The consequence
is that we are becoming an oligarchy of people at the very top and people at the very bottom with no
middle class stabilizer in the center. If we lose the ability to hope and if we lose the belief that you can
work hard and get ahead we truly lose the character of what made this country great and the beacon of
prosperity and democracy to others around the world. And if we don't reverse this course we will have
a two-tier society with an enormous base at the bottom of poor people barely making it on minimum
wage and the i% living very well.
Even in the Great Depression there was a belief that the average person would eventually do well
because whatever you feel about FDR there was a sense that the government was working to improve
the lot of the poor and the average Americans. Today people have lost faith in the political process in
America. They have been hit so hard and they see no response from their politicians. And no one is
trying to help them or working on their behalf. One of the problems is money in politics. The average
politicians has to spend three to four hours a day trolling for money. A third of the money given to
politicians in the last election came from 138,000. And when you are mostly speaking to financial
supporters who tend to be in the Top i%, the policies that you support and embrace are those that
favor their desires. And both parties are to fault.
The root of the challenges facing these two families is systemic, it's not a matter of personal virtue or
moral accountability as their situation is because the way our system works only for a very few at the
top. Moyers: Never underestimate the power Learned Helplessness -- when you hear
propaganda over and over again or ideology over and over again, such as -- it was the people
who couldn't pay their mortgages caused the housing crisis and thefinancial meltdown, or those who
lost their jobs - why can't they hold a job or their pensions were too generous, why did they have
children, why did they buy this house, even though the Neumann's mortgage was only $850 a month
— and as a result you buy into the argument that you and you alone are responsible for your dire
situation. Instead of responding with charity, our financial class should respond by making sure that
there is a level playing field and justice for all.
I also invite you to see Frontline's "Two American Families":
http://video.pbssocal.orgivideo/2365042061
Again, Two American Families shows the process and the pain over two decades and puts a face
and proud people struggling to survive. Because it puts a face on what's happen to America. We have
lost our sense of collective responsibility, we have loss that sense of connection, over government is
dysfunctional both parties are owned and operated by powerful financial interest in America. We no
longer have the optimism of a Norman Rockwell poster of the 4os and 5os. The film shows a
staggering fear and the uncertainty and a loss of hope that has falling across the face of America. The
strength of America has always been a ever growing Middle Class. When wages are systematically
push downward they can't buy the goods and services produced. If this situation continues America
will no longer be the country of our fathers, where dedication and hard work would insure that you had
a better quality of life than your parents and your children would have more opportunities than you.
Two American Families shows this is no longer America and the American Dream may be a myth,
as economist Joseph Stiglitz says.
THIS WEEK's READINGS
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Last month in the Rolling Stone Magazine, Jeff Goodell wrote - Why the City ofMiami Is
Doomed to Drown - telling a sobering story about the affects of Hurricane Milo in 2030 which
overwhelms the low-lying city of Miami with a 24-foot storm surge, flooding South Beach, mansions in
Star Island, Highway AiA , knocking out the wastewater-treatment plant on Virginia Key, forcing the
city to dump hundreds of millions of gallons of raw sewage into Biscayne Bay. Tampons and condoms
litter the beaches, and the stench of human excrement stoked fears of cholera. With more than Boo
people dying as many of them swept are away by the surging waters that submerged much of Miami
Beach and Fort Lauderdale; 13 people were killed in traffic accidents as they scrambled to escape the
city. If this were to happen, it would signal the end of the City of Miami, especially if the sea levels are
a foot higher then they are today. The irony is that all of this is possible, if we continue to
ignore global warming.
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Miami after Hurricane Wilma in 2005
Sea-level rise is not a hypothetical disaster. It is a physical fact of life on a warming planet, the basic
dynamics of which even a child can understand: Heat melts ice. Since the 1920s, the global average
sea level has risen about nine inches, mostly from the thermal expansion of the ocean water. But
thanks to our 200-year-long fossil-fuel binge, the great ice sheets in Greenland and Antarctica are
starting to melt rapidly now, causing the rate of sea-level rise to grow exponentially. The latest
research, including an assessment by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, suggests
that sea level could rise more than six feet by the end of the century. James Hansen, the godfather of
global-warming science, has argued that it could increase as high as i6 feet by then — and Wanless
believes that it could continue rising a foot each decade after that. "With six feet of sea-level rise,
South Florida is toast," says Tom Gustafson, a former Florida speaker of the House and a climate-
change-policy advocate. Even if we cut carbon pollution overnight, it won't save us. Ohio State
glaciologist Jason Box has said he believes we already have 70 feet of sea-level rise baked into the
system.
South Florida is not the only place that will be devastated by sea-level rise. London, Boston, New York
and Shanghai are all vulnerable, as are low-lying underdeveloped nations like Bangladesh. But South
Florida is uniquely screwed, in part because about 75 percent of the 5.5 million people in South Florida
live along the coast. And unlike many cities, where the wealth congregates in the hills, southern
Florida's most valuable real estate is right on the water. The Organization for Economic Co-
operation and Development lists Miami as the number-one most vulnerable city worldwide in
terms ofproperty damage, with more than $p6 billion in assets at risk to storm-relatedflooding
and sea-level rise.
South Florida has two big problems. The first is its remarkably flat topography. Half the area that
surrounds Miami is less than five feet above sea level. Its highest natural elevation, a limestone ridge
that runs from Palm Beach to just south of the city, averages a scant 12 feet. With just three feet of sea-
level rise, more than a third of southern Florida will vanish; at six feet, more than half will be gone; if
the seas rise 12 feet, South Florida will be little more than an isolated archipelago surrounded by
abandoned buildings and crumbling overpasses. And the waters won't just come in from the east —
because the region is so flat, rising seas will come in nearly as fast from the west too, through the
Everglades.
Even worse, South Florida sits above a vast and porous limestone plateau. "Imagine Swiss cheese, and
you'll have a pretty good idea what the rock under southern Florida looks like," says Glenn Landers, a
senior engineer at the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. This means water moves around easily — it seeps
into yards at high tide, bubbles up on golf courses, flows through underground caverns, corrodes
building foundations from below. "Conventional sea walls and barriers are not effective here," says
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Robert Daoust, an ecologist at ARCADIS, a Dutch firm that specializes in engineering solutions to
rising seas. "Protecting the city, if it is possible, will require innovative solutions."
One of the biggest uncertainties in Miami's future is how the rest of America will feel about rescuing
the city. Nobody questioned the wisdom of spending $40 billion in tax dollars to rebuild after Katrina
and another $60 billion to help rebuild after Sandy, but will they feel the same about Miami — land of
millionaires and beach condos — when the time comes? Not that everyone doesn't love Miami. But at
some point, Congress is going to balk at spending $50 billion to rebuild the city every time a tropical
storm passes by. "South Florida doesn't have the power of New York," says Daniel Kreeger, the South
Florida-based executive director of the Association of Climate Change Officers. "We don't have any
major cultural institutions, we don't have Wall Street, we don't have any great universities. The
unpleasant truth is that it will be all too easyfor the rest of the nation to just let South Florida go."
That is, of course, not the American way. We don't let cities go. We don't secede territory to the ocean.
But this is the direction that our failure to cut carbon pollution is taking us. The loss of Miami will be a
manifestation of years of denial and apathy, of allowing Big Oil and Big Coal to divert us from
understanding the real-world consequences of our dependence on fossil fuels. In Wanless' view, the
wisest course of action now is to stop subsidizing coastal development and create federal and state
policies that encourage people to move out of at-risk low-lying areas. "Instead of spending a billion
dollars to build a new tunnelfor the Port of Miami, we should be spending that money to buy people
out of their homes and relocate them to higher ground," Wanless says. "We have to accept the reality
of what is about to happen to us." But that won't happen without political leadership, and on this
issue, of course, the state of Florida has none. ("I have a solutionfor that," says former speaker
Gustafson. "We need to all march up to the capital in Tallahassee and burn thefucker down. That's
the only way we're gonna save South Florida.")
Stuart compares Miami with Baiae, the ancient Roman resort town in the bay of Naples that was once
a playground for Nero and Julius Ceasar. Today, because of volcanic activity, the ruins of Baiae are
mostly under water. "This is what humans do," says Stuart . "We inhabit cities, and then when
something happens, we move on. The same thing will happen with Miami. The only question is, how
long can we stick it out?" But for Stuart, who lives in Miami Beach, the fact that the city is doomed
doesn't diminish his love for the place. "That's the thing about Miami," he says. "You'll want to be here
until the very end." This story is from the July 4th, 2013 issue of Rolling Stone and you can find it
attached to this week's offerings.
This week in MAIL-Online - Drowning slowly: How the America's Golden State cities
will look in 500 years if sea levels rise as predicted - as 2012 was the hottest year ever in the
United States with sea levels are rising by around 1.7mm per year and is expected to continue for
centuries. Artist Nickolay Lamm, has produced some worrying illustrations of how California's biggest
cities will become lost to the ocean if scientists' predictions of the effects of global warming prove
correct. San Francisco, becomes consumed by the very bay it is constructed next to. Venice Beach
resembles scenes from Venice, Italy as the Pacific Ocean slowly deluges the trendy Los Angeles
neighborhood. And San Diego's position as a naval town is virtually washed away as the unforgiving
sea water floods the towns docks and promenades.
2, Venice, California: Today, Venice is known for its canals, beaches and circus-like Ocean Front Walk, a two-
and-a-half-mile pedestrian-only promenade
Venice, California: Today, Venice is known for its canals, beaches and circus-like Ocean Front Walk, a two-and-a-haff-mie pedestrian-only promenade
2, Venice of America: Venice Beach would have more in common with its Italian namesake if the sea levels rise
12 feet as shown here
Venice of America: Venice Beach would have more in common with its Italian namesake if the sea levels rise 12 feet as shown here
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According to the Intergovernmental Panel of Climate Change, the seas will rise by an average of 6.6
feet by 2100. Then over the coming centuries, as temperatures rise and ice sheets melt, the oceans
could rise as much as 20 or 3o feet. Lamm has created images which show famous cities will look like
under 5 feet (projected increase over the next 100 to 300 years), 12 feet (potential level in 2300), and
25 feet (the potential level in coming centuries) of water. The U.S. National Climate Assessment report
notes that of an increase in average U.S. temperatures of about 1.5 degrees F since 1895, when reliable
national record-keeping began, more than 8o percent had occurred in the past three decades. With
heat-trapping gases already in the atmosphere, temperatures could rise by a further 210 4 degrees F in
most parts of the country over the next few decades, the report said.
2, The City by the Bay: AT&T Park, home of the San Francisco Giants baseball team is already perched
perilously close to the bay from which the city earns its nickname
The City by the Bay: AT&T Park home of the San Francisco Giants baseball team is already perched perilously dose to the bay from which the city earns its
nickname
g2, Fancy a swim? Just 12 feet of water turns the baseball stadium into an open-air swimming pool as the bay
begins to consume the city
Just 12 feet of water turns the basebaff stadium into an open-air swimming pod as the bay begins to conswne the city
To see more images, please download the web-link: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-
2357309/How-Americas-cities-look-centuries-sea-level-rises-predicted-scientists-prove-correct.html
Last week The Guardian had an article - Global threat tofood supply as water wells dry
up, warns top environment expert based on Lester Brown who says that grain harvests are already
shrinking as US, India and China come close to peak water; as wells are drying up and underwater
tables falling so fast in the Middle East and parts of India, China and the US that food supplies are
seriously threatened, one of the world's leading resource analysts has warned. In a major new essay
Lester Brown, head of the Earth Policy Institute in Washington, claims that 18 countries, together
containing half the world's people, are now over-pumping their underground water tables to the point
— known as "peak water" — where they are not replenishing and where harvests are getting smaller
each year.
2,Inline image 8
Iraq is among the countries in the Middle East facing severe water shortages.
The situation is most serious in the Middle East. According to Brown: "Among the countries whose
water supply has peaked and begun to decline are Saudi Arabia, Syria, Iraq and Yemen. By 2016
Saudi Arabia projects it will be importing some 15tH tonnes of wheat, rice, corn and barley tofeed its
population of 30 million people. It is thefirst country to publicly project how aquifer depletion will
shrink its grain harvest. "The world is seeing the collision between population growth and water
supply at the regional level. For thefirst time in history, grain production is dropping in a
geographic region with nothing in sight to arrest the decline. Because of thefailure of governments
in the region to mesh population and water policies, each day now brings 10,000 more people tofeed
and less irrigation water with which tofeed them."
Brown warns that Syria's grain production peaked in 2002 and since then has dropped 30%; Iraq has
dropped its grain production 33% since 2004; and production in Iran dropped io% between 2007 and
2012 as its irrigation wells started to go dry. "Iran is already in deep trouble. It isfeeling the effects of
shrinking water suppliesfrom over-pumping Yemen isfast becoming a hydrological basket case.
Grain production hasfallen there by half over the last 35 years. By 2015 irrigatedfields will be a
rarity and the country will be importing virtually all of its grain."
2Inline image 7
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There is also concern about falling water tables in China, India and the US, the world's three largest
food-producing countries. "In India,175 million people are being fed with grain produced by
overpumping, in China 130 million. In the United States the irrigated area is shrinking in leading
farm states with rapid population growth, such as California and Texas, as aquifers are depleted
and irrigation water is diverted to cities." Falling water tables are already adversely affecting harvest
prospects in China, which rivals the US as the world's largest grain producer, says Brown. "The water
table under the North China Plain, an area that produces more than half of the country's wheat and
a third of its maize isfallingfast. Overpumping has largely depleted the shallow aquifer,forcing well
drillers to turn to the region's deep aquifer, which is not replenishable."
The situation in India may be even worse, given that well drillers are now using modified oil-drilling
technology to reach water half a mile or more deep. "The harvest has been expanding rapidly in
recent years, but only because of massive over-pumpingfrom the water table. The margin between
food consumption and survival is precarious in India, whose population is growing by 18 million per
year and where irrigation depends almost entirely on underground water. Farmers have drilled
some 21m irrigation wells and are pumping vast amounts of underground water, and water tables
are declining at an accelerating rate in Punjab, Haryana, Rajasthan, Gujarat and Tamil Nadu."
In the US, fanners are overpumping in the Western Great Plains, including in several leading grain-
producing states such as Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas and Nebraska. Irrigated agriculture has thrived in
these states, but the water is drawn from the Ogallala aquifer, a huge underground water body that
stretches from Nebraska southwards to the Texas Panhandle. "It is, unfortunately, a fossil aquifer,
one that does not recharge. Once it is depleted, the wells go dry andfarmers either go back to dry-
landfarming or abandonfarming altogether, depending on local conditions," says Brown. "In
Texas, located on the shallow end of the aquifer, the irrigated area peaked in 1975 and has dropped
37% since then. In Oklahoma irrigation peaked in 1982 and has dropped by 25%. In Kansas the peak
did not come until 2009, but during the three years since then it has dropped precipitously,falling
nearly 30%. Nebraska saw its irrigated area peak in 2007. Since then its grain harvest has shrunk
by 15%."
Brown warned that many other countries may be on the verge of declining harvests. "With less water
for irrigation, Mexico may be on the verge of a downturn in its grain harvest. Pakistan may also
have reached peak water. If so, peak grain may not befar behind."
******
Last week in the New York Times, Cornell University economic professor Robert Frank wrote this
op-ed — Austerity Won't Work if the Roof Is Leaking — based on observations during a
recent trip to Berlin, where the entire city seemed under construction. In every direction, cranes and
other heavy equipment dominated the landscape. Although many projects appeared to be in the
private sector, innumerable others — including bridge and highway repairs, new subway stations and
other infrastructure work — are financed by taxpayers. Wondering aloud how could this be, since
Germany has been one of the most outspoken advocates of fiscal austerity after the financial crisis? He
concludes that on face it is an obvious contradiction, but that fiscally responsible businesses routinely
borrow to invest, and until recently, so did most governments. Except lately, fears about growing
public debt have caused wholesale cuts in American public investment. While the Germans, who hate
indebtedness. But they also understand the distinction between consumption and investment. By
borrowing, they've made investments whose future benefits will far outweigh repayment costs. There's
nothing foolhardy about that.
The German experience suggests how we might move past our own stalled debate about economic
stimulus policy. In the aftermath of the economic crisis, the policy discussion began with economists
in broad agreement that unemployment remained high because total spending was too low. Keynesian
stimulus proponents argued that temporary tax cuts and additional government spending would
bolster hiring. Austerity advocates countered that additional government spending would merely
displace private spending and that we already had too much debt in any event. And the debate has
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languished there. A preponderance of evidence suggests that Keynes was right. But as the German
experience illustrates, progress is possible without settling that question. The Germans are investing
in infrastructure not to provide short-term economic stimulus, but because those investments promise
high returns. Yet their undeniable side effect has been to bolster employment substantially in the
short run.
Not all German public investments have met expectations. Berlin's new consolidated airport, for
example, has suffered multiple delays and cost overruns, and parts of the city's recently constructed
central rail station are to have major repairs. But private investment projects suffer occasional
setbacks, too, and no one argues that businesses should stop investing on that account. The
Germans didn't become bogged down in debate over stimulus policy, and they didn't explicitly portray
their infrastructure push as stimulus. But that didn't hamper their strategy's remarkable effectiveness
at putting people to work. The unemployment rate in Germany, at 5.3 percent and falling, is now
substantially lower than in the United States, where it ticked up to 7.6 percent last month. (By
contrast, in March 2007, before thefinancial crisis, the rate in Germany was 9.2 percent, aboutfive
percentage points higher than in the United States.)
A prudent investment is one whose future returns exceed its costs — including interest cost if the
money is borrowed. Opportunities meeting that standard abound in the infrastructure domain.
According to the American Society of Civil Engineers, the nation has a backlog of some $3.6
trillion in overdue infrastructure maintenance. No one in Congress seriously proposes that we just
abandon our crumbling roads and bridges, and everyone agrees that the repair cost will grow sharply
the longer we wait.
The case for accelerated infrastructure investment becomes more compelling with our economy still in
the doldrums. That's because many of the needed workers and machines are now idle. If we wait,
we'll need to bid them away from other tasks. Also because of the sluggish economy, the materials
required for the work are now relatively cheap. If we wait, they will become more expensive. And
long-term interest rates for the money to pay for the work continue to hover near record lows. They,
too, will be higher if we wait. Austerity advocates object that more deficit spending now will burden
our grandchildren with crushing debt. That might be true if the proposal were to build bigger houses
and stage more lavish parties with borrowed money — as Americans, in fact, were doing in the first
half of the last decade. But the objection makes no sense when applied to long-overdue infrastructure
repairs. A failure to undertake that spending will gratuitously burden our grandchildren.
In 2009, austerity proponents argued against stimulus, predicting that the economy would recover
quickly and spontaneously. It didn't Later, they said we tried stimulus and it didn't work. But in the
face of a projected $2 trillion shortfall in the spending needed for full employment, Congress enacted a
stimulus bill totaling only $787 billion, spread over three years. And much of that injection was offset
by cuts in state and local government spending. Now austerity backers urge — preposterously — that
infrastructure repairs be postponed until government budgets are in balance. But would they also tell
an indebted family to postpone fixing a leaky roof until it paid off all its debts? Not only would the
repair grow more costly with the delay, but the water damage would mount in the interim. Families
should pay off debts, yes, but not in ways that actually increase their indebtedness in the longer
term. The logic is the same for infrastructure.
Austerity advocates, who have been wrong at virtually every turn, are unlikely to change their minds
about stimulus policy. But with continued slow growth in the outlook, it's time to re-frame the debate.
Our best available option, by far, is to rebuild our tattered infrastructure at fire-sale prices. If the
austerity crowd disagrees, it should explain why is public investment working in Germany. Because as
my father believed, it is always cheaper tofix things today And since borrowing rates are at
historical lows, it is definitely cheaper today....
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This week in The Atlantic — James Hambin wrote an article — When the Best Hospitals Are
the Worst — saying that America is facing a serious shortage of primary care doctors and that within
the decade, the U.S. physician shortage will be around 91,500, with about half of them in primary care.
Already today, 60 million Americans live in federally designated primary care shortage areas. The
problem is how federal dollars to train physicians are distributed.
ginline image 6
Dr. Helen B. Taussig, co-developer of the "blue baby operation," at Johns Hopkins Hospital in 1968. The
hospital's pediatric cardiac center is now named in her honor.
Residency training programs, which are the on-the-job work done after graduating from medical
school but before doctors fly solo, are paid for by federal taxes. It costs the government around
$3.00,000 per year to train one doctor. (The resident gets about $50,t3oo in salary, and the hospital
gets the other half.) The 759 institutions in the U.S. with residencies get a total of around $13 billion
federal dollars every year. But many hospitals aren't using that money to do what the taxpayers most
need. 158 of them produce zero graduates that go into primary care. The worst offenders, in terms of
the number of primary-care physicians produced, are the hospitals we hold in highest regard. Those
perennially among the "top hospitals" in nebulous magazine rankings: Mass General, New York
Presbyterian, Cleveland Clinic, Brigham and Women's, Stanford, Washington University in Saint
Louis, etc. Training at these places comes with prestige, credibility, esteem. It's valued among
patients searching the Internet to find a new doctor, and has cachet within the physician job market.
Yet data from the Graham Center at George Washington University puts all of those among the 10
worst institutions in terms of producing the doctors that the U.S. most needs.
One example is Johns Hopkins: ... Its teaching hospital in Baltimore towers over a low-income
neighborhood designated by the federal government to be suffering from a shortage of primary care
doctors. Yet between 2006 and 2008, of the 1048 residents who graduated from Hopkins's residency
programs, only 8.97 percent went into primary care. Only two graduates went on to practice in a
federally qualified public health clinic, and not one participated the National Health Service Corps, a
program designed to encourage doctors to practice in underserved areas. In 2009, Hopkins residency
programs costs the taxpayers $80.7 million.
The problem is not new; even in the 1960s there was talk of overspecialization as a burgeoning
problem. Longman traces the roots back earlier, when after World War II General Omar Bradley
started using the Veterans Administration hospitals to train new doctors, and got federal money for
doing so. Then in 1965, the passage of Medicare guaranteed subsidies to private institutions, as well,
for medical training.
Now lets profile a prototypical overworked, underpaid primary care physician: Linda Thomas-Hemak
grew up in a small town outside of Scranton. Inspired by the example of her family's physician (an old-
fashioned doctor named Thomas Fadden Clauss who still made house calls in the snow), she made her
way through medical school and then on to Harvard's combined medicine and pediatrics residency
program at Massachusetts General Hospital. She was on her way to becoming chief resident at Mass
General, she says, when she was drawn back to her roots, returning to Scranton in 2000 to join her
aging mentor in his local practice. She soon discovered, however, that being a modern-day primary
care doctor, especially in a medically underserved area like Scranton, left her with little time to
breathe. In short order she found herself responsible for 2,600 patients. "Ifelt I could never get a cold
or take a sick day," she says. "Ifelt sofar awayfrom Harvard." She felt frustrated, too, that so
many of Scranton's aspiring young doctors would become discouraged by the lessons they took from
seeing how she and her colleagues were struggling. "At the end of the day you take bright, idealistic,
and Pollyannaish students and expose them to that, what do you think will happen?"
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Then there is the Wright Center which, which like some VA primary care clinics, is becoming a model
of integrated team-player primary care training . ("The mission of the Wright Center is to provide
excellent graduate medical education in an innovative and collaborative spirit in order to deliver
high-quality, evidence-based and patient-centered care to the communities we serve.")
Addressing the shortage in said communities comes down to realigning incentives. Even for the
noblest of selfless primary care physicians, it means getting days off, getting enough time with patients
to establish fulfilling relationships, and making enough money to pay off student loans easily. It
means some degree of prestige and respect without training at a big-name institution -- perhaps
because they didn't. It means being held in the same regard as the physicians who get their names in
textbooks for pioneering niche cutting-edge surgeries at ivied institutions. Feeling like their patients
can get follow-up care in a network of other community care providers, so they aren't just treading
water refilling prescriptions, alone against the tide.
The conclusion is that Congress needs to demand that [residency] - sponsoring institutions increase
their production of primary care doctors and of other health care professionals of the kinds we need, or
risk losing their subsidies. And to tell Hopkins that they're welcome to continue to train as many high-
earning sub-sub-specialists as they choose -- to be, say, the best place in the world to be treated if you
have an ultra-rare ear tumor that affects one in boo billion people. Or to do pioneering work in
neonatal cardiac transplants. We need institutions like that. But are they the best places to invest our
finite amount of training money? If Hopkins can't produce more of the doctors that the nation most
urgently needs, then more of their $80.7 million annual subsidy would be directed to places that can
and do.
There is a belief that within today's rising Millennial generation, there is a wellspring of idealistic
young people trying to be part of the solution to America's health care crisis by becoming team players
in primary care and community-based medicine. This is true despite compounding student loans and
often the prospect of forfeiting enormous potential future earning streams by not going into lucrative
specialties. But the greatest obstacle of all is an incumbent system of graduate medical education that
with too few exceptions crushes their idealism and teaches a hidden curriculum of counterproductive
values and attitudes. It may be idealistic in itself to presume that Millennial idealism translates into
motivation or ability to solve any crisis, much less health care. But I know there are at least some
Millennials who want to do things other than improv classes and selling artisinal knots on Etsy and
never owning a house. Systemic change might at least give them an opportunity to channel idealism
into health reform.
Of course every medical student should be able to practice the kind of medicine that most interests
them, and world-class academic hospitals must continue to train world-class academic specialists.
Right now, though, the U.S. either invests more than the current $13 billion every year to train doctors
(which would be kind of a drop in the $3 trillion health-care spending bucket), or redistributes it to
the places that are creating more primary care physicians per dollar. Primary care physicians save
money across the system, stemming problems before they require expensive specialist interventions.
Training them should be the newest metric of institutional prestige. When we don't invest enough in
them, everyone feels the costs. And a nation of overbooked, unavailable primary care doctors could
mean that for all our worries, as the Association of the American Medical Colleges has said, Obamacare
would essentially provide "insurance in name only" and not because of bad policy but because of a
shortage of primarily care documents.
Last week in The Huffington Post Rachael Ratner wrote - Worldwide Air Pollution Deaths
Per Year Number Over 2 Million, New Study Claims - that the study estimated that 2.1
million deaths each year are linked with fine particulate matter, tiny particles that can get deep into the
lungs and cause health problems. And that exposure to particle pollution has been linked with early
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death from heart and lung diseases, including lung cancer, the researchers said; meanwhile,
concentrations of particulate matter have been increasing due to human activities. The study also
found that 470,000 deaths yearly are linked with human sources of ozone, which forms when
pollutants from sources such as cars or factories come together and react. Exposure to ozone has been
linked to death from respiratory diseases.
Inline image 5
Most of the estimated global deaths likely occur in East and South Asia, which have large populations
and severe air pollution, said study researcher Jason West, an assistant professor of environmental
sciences at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. "Air pollution is an important problem.
It's probably one of the most important environmental riskfactorsfor health," West said. The study
suggests that improving air quality around the world would increase life expectancy for some, he said.
While some studies have suggested that climate change can make air pollution more deadly, the new
study found that climate change had only a small effect on air pollution-related deaths. Pollution and
climate interact in several ways. Climate-related factors such as temperature and humidity can affect
the reaction rates of particles in the air, which in turn determine the formation of pollutants;
additionally, rainfall can affect accumulation of pollutants, the researchers said. However, in the
researchers' analysis, changes in climate were linked with just 1,500 yearly deaths from ozone
pollution, and 2,200 yearly deaths from fine particulate matter.
The researchers used a number of climate models to estimate concentrations of air pollution around
the world, in the years 1850 (the pre-industrial era) and 2000. Focusing on these two years allowed the
researchers to determine what proportion of air pollution was human-caused (attributable to
industrialization). Then, the researchers used information from past studies on air pollution and
health to determine how many deaths are linked with particular concentrations of air pollution, West
said.
The new study had an advantage over previous work in that it did not rely on just one climate model,
but instead included several. However, because the study used information from previous research on
air pollution and health, the estimates are subject to the same uncertainties that characterized those
previous studies. In addition, most of the studies on air pollution and health were conducted in the
United States, so applying those results globally, as the current study did, introduces some uncertainty,
West said. The study was published in the July 12 issue of the journal Environmental Research
Letters.
Although over 98% of scientists who have published scientific papers on anthropogenie global
warming (AGW) over the past 21 years are in strong agreement that position that humans are
causing global warming, there is wide public perception (so% of the population) that climate scientists
disagree over the fundamental cause of global warming. A group of scientist headed by John Cook in
Australia, United States, United Kingdom and Canada did an in-depth study that not only does 98% of
climate scientist strongly believe that human activity has hasten global warming out of the more than
12,000 independent scientific papers published not one endorsed the opposite position. As a result
John Cook's team of scientist say that the public needs to understand that there is almost a unanimous
acceptation by scientific experts that human activity is causing global warming in order to rally public
support for climate policy.
See web-link: http://bcove.me/cili8rcl
Between sand storms and pollution many cities in China including its capital, Beijing is almost
unlivable, so the rising of the sea level is not the only thing that will destroy quality of life in
concentrated urban areas and along shorelines. And to allow special interest lobbyists to delay
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meaningful climate change policies should be seen as criminal as carbon emission pollution is killing
thousands of people everyday.
QUOTE OF THE WEEK
"Hard work is painful when life is devoid ofpurpose. But when you livefor something greater than
yourself and the gratification of your own ego, then hard work becomes a labor of love."
Steve Pavlina
GREAT PICTURES OF TIBET
Website:
ui=2&ik=875e48a476&view=attSzth=i3fafsded8b73a5c&attid=o.18zdisp=safe&zw
A Neat Little Article For The Day
Finding Your Passion In Work: 20 Awesome Quotes
Check it out
Web Link:
work-20-awesome-quotes
THIS WEEK's MUSIC
This week I would like to share music of The Four Tops -- an American vocal quartet, whose
repertoire has included doo-wop, jazz, soul music, R&B, disco, adult contemporary, and showtunes.
Founded in Detroit, Michigan as The Four Aims, lead singer Levi Stubbs (born Levi Stubbles, a cousin
of Jackie Wilson and brother of The Falcons' Joe Stubbs), and groupmates Abdul "Duke" Fakir,
Renaldo "Obie" Benson and Lawrence Payton remained together for over four decades, having gone
from 1953 until 1997 without a single change in personnel. Along with The Miracles, The Marvelettes,
Martha and the Vandellas, The Temptations, and The Supremes, the Four Tops helped define the
Motown Sound of the 1960s.
2,Inline image 32,Inline image 4
2,The Four Tops, shown in 1990 are, from left, Renaldo (Obie) Benson, Levi Stubbs, Abdul Fakir and Lawrence
Payton. Fakir is now the only surviving member.
A change of line-up was finally forced upon the group when Lawrence Payton died on June 20, 1997.
The band initially continued as a three-piece under the name The Tops, before Theo Peoples
(formerly of The Temptations) was recruited as the new fourth member. Peoples eventually took over
the role of lead singer when Stubbs suffered a stroke in 2000 with his position assumed by Ronnie
McNeir. On July 1, 2005, Benson died of lung cancer with Payton's son Roquel Payton replacing him.
Levi Stubbs died on October 17, 2008. Fakir, McNeir, Payton, and Harold "Spike" Bonhart, who
replaced Peoples in 2011, are still performing together as the Four Tops. Fakir is now the only
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surviving founding member of the original group. The group was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall
of Fame in 1990, and into the Vocal Group Hall of Fame in 1999. In 2004, Rolling Stone
Magazine ranked them #79 on their list of the 100 Greatest Artists ofAll Time. I invite you to
enjoy a sampling of musicfrom the Four Tops.
Four Tops - Ain't no Woman Like The One I've Got --
The Four Tops - When She Was My Girl --
The Four Tops - Baby I Need Your Loving --
The Four Tops — Just Ask The Lonely --
The Four Tops — Still Waters Run Deep --
The Four Tops — Bernadette --
The Four Tops — Standing in the Shadow of Love --
v=x1ItzMwA5gJI&Iist=RD029ShicxXRJ s
The Four Tops — Walk Away Renee --
v=xu5yLUOInOg&list=RD029ShicxXRJ_s
The Four Tops - The Same Old Song --
The Four Tops — I Can't Help Myself (Sugar pie honey bun) -
v=z59EVHU8Mj1
The Four Tops - Reach Out (Ill Be There) --
The Temptations vs The Four Tops live Motown --
I hope that you enjoyed this week's offerings and wish you a great week And to Trayvon and his
family, my prayers are with you
Sincerely,
Greg Brown
(ii
Ciregory Brown
Chairman & CEO
GlobalCast Pane's. LLC
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